Authorities have identified the gunman involved in Saturday’s attack on former US President Donald Trump as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. Secret Service agents killed Crooks at the scene after the shooting.
In a statement early Sunday morning, the FBI identified Crooks as a resident of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, about 35 miles south of Butler, where Trump was holding his rally.
According to law enforcement officials, Crooks fired on Trump from a nearby building rooftop outside the rally’s security perimeter before being killed by the Secret Service.
Witnesses at the rally described a chaotic and “bloody” scene, with attendees administering first aid to those hit by the gunfire and struggling with the dense crowd.
Authorities reported that the shooting left one rally attendee dead and two others in critical condition. Trump was injured, writing on social media that he had been hit by a bullet in the upper part of his ear, though his campaign stated he was otherwise fine. Trump flew back to Newark, New Jersey, late Saturday night.
Attention now turns to the ongoing investigation, involving multiple federal and state bodies. The FBI has urged the public to submit any information through a tip line or the agency website, including photos or videos of the shooting.
Local media reported that Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022, corroborated by a video of the school’s commencement.
According to Pennsylvania’s voter database, Crooks was registered to vote as a Republican, with a listing matching his name, age, and a Bethel Park address. Law enforcement searched this address Saturday night, linking it to Crooks through public records.
This year’s presidential election would have been the first in which he was old enough to vote.
Federal Election Commission records show that a donor named Thomas Crooks, with the same address, gave $15 to a Democratic-aligned political action committee called the Progressive Turnout Project in January 2021.
When contacted by CNN late Saturday night, Crooks’ father, Matthew Crooks, said he was trying to figure out “what the hell is going on” but would “wait until I talk to law enforcement” before speaking about his son.
After Crooks was killed at the scene, agents found no identification on his body. They had to “run his DNA and get biometric confirmation,” Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, said at a Saturday night press conference before the gunman was named.
